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April 25, 2018April 21, 2018

God’s Lottery Ticket

UI – Part 496 – God’s Lottery Ticket

What God Has Provided

God has provided a winning lottery ticket for every human being. Think about that. The lottery of life is the answer to the question, “what happens next?” The winning ticket provides the answer and the guarantee that it is yours. All the hope and joy you can possibly endure is yours. All that is necessary is to open the ticket and declare you’ve won.

The gift from God for many, unfortunately, is a conceptual dilemma. There is no deal to be made. There is no Dante with whom to trade your soul. Dante, the devil and many forms of this Satan, fill the voids, the crevasses, and the pits of humans hearts, souls and minds, clogging veins and with carotid artery like substances restrict flow to the brain engendering resistance, denial, and an inability to accept the winning lottery ticket, the gift. Nothing you can do will alter the opportunity to accept the gift except other than your own rejection for reasons that only you can justify. Why would anyone say no to God’s gift? There is nothing you need to do to earn this ticket. God says, “here, look at what has been done for you!” Just accept it. When you do, know this, your life will change. That is the way it works.

Allah does not offer this gift. Muslims have no ticket to open.

Ahura Mazda does not offer this gift. Zoroaster does suggest people seek Asha (truth).

Buddhism encompasses thinking, meditation, with a focus on the cultivation of wisdom, loving-kindness and compassion. It guides its adherents to consider suffering in this life and its ongoing existence in the lives of future generations, the endless repetition of suffering due to rebirth. Being an ascetic can pave the way to enlightenment, an awareness and acceptance of the human condition, alone and separate from reality. Yet a ‘being’ made aware through extreme self-discipline is not the gift, it is an attempt at earning, by doing, a peaceful life absent the distortion of hatred, violence, and debate.

The Hindu’s have no god, but suggest the Sanatana Dharma, “the eternal tradition,” or the “eternal way,” beyond human history. It is a way of life, and nothing more. It is tolerant and accepting of other beliefs. God’s gift provides the eternal life. When Hindu’s meditate they consider what is good and peaceful. They seek liberation from this earthy existence. Atman, the eternal soul of every human, and Brahman, the supreme spirit, coexist and live in all that surrounds – pantheistic.

From the various ideologies or religions noted you may surmise that the gift, the lottery ticket, is offered by God, the God of the Bible, the Word of God, and not by others. Are the others in denial? Have the others been led by charismatic thinkers to shape their own consideration of destiny? Or have followers been coerced, born into, culturally conditioned, and restrained from using their intellect to consider alternatives.

The God of the Bible makes the gift available. There is no pressure to accept. There is no force to convert or take the gift. There is, however, a request of those who do believe to share, share the opportunity and the benefit the gift offers.

Allah of the Quran is a domineering sort. The expectation is that once a follower, a Muslim, always a follower. There is no avenue to consider to pursue an alternative, unless those born into Islam or having converted, coerced to do so or voluntarily, want to face the punishment of death. The adherents are made aware of death for apostasy daily. If God is being considered then the call from the tenets of Islam is to condemn the individual that strays, deny the truth, and remain as a Muslim, or else. The Islamist sees themselves as eligible Allah surrogates when it comes to punishment for disobedience. Allah’s wrath is theirs to deliver. No gift.

Ahura Mazda (AM) of the Zoroastrians have at the core many of the concepts that are part of Christianity, Judaism, Hindu and Buddhism. AM is the creator and lord of the universe. The ahuras (many gods) are divine entities. There are gods whose qualities are what is good, moral, righteous, and purposeful. Truth is important, inherent truth as imparted by their gods, more than man’s truth. To enter the eternal life a bridge is crossed and deeds are measured, the journey of the good souls are pleasant and the sinful souls unpleasant, while the routing towards heaven or hell depends on the character of the soul. Thus the gift is not given, but earned. Wrong gods, prophets, are not to be honored or followed. That is similar to cult worship or mysticism. Many rituals practiced are practiced by Jews and Muslims, such as bathing before entering a house of worship.

Buddha’s consideration of the soul and peaceful coexistence does not seek to coerce or convince. It is a method, a way to live in harmony with others. There is no god to be obeyed. It is Buddha whose mantras, as prayers, ‘oms,’ decry the wrong and seek the right, call for compassion, wisdom, a loving-nature, inner peace and more.

The Hindu’s view of all that surrounds as the supernatural’s presence satisfies the concept of god’s omnipresence. It indirectly sees creation as a daily event, with god present in everything, always and at all times. Yet it does not accept God as the bearer of the Gift for an life eternal.

God’s Gift

Thus the lottery ticket given, not earned, is from God. The biblical God through the Word provides the story, the plan, the program for humans from creation, to humans made in God’s image, free will, and man’s nature to disobey God. Man’s nature to rebel and disobey, even God, became a stain on all of us, causing physical death, spiritual death and eternal death. All humans are separated from God. God could have destroyed all he created. He still can. But he chose to correct the flaw and make humans, who accept the gift, right anew with God. As only God can do, he came to earth, revealed himself in the form of man, lived as no man could, a perfect life, without sin, but was condemned to die by leaders who feared the loss of their power, their status and their control. He became the example and there were witnesses to prove what he did, and confirm what he said. This truth was made known to those who knew him and who know him, as the Word is God. As Adam was man who became sin for all mankind, Christ was made man to take on the burden of sin and provide forgiveness for all mankind. “For as in Adam all die (physically, spiritually, eternally), so in Christ all will be made alive (restored, reborn in the spirit, spiritually and eternally)” (1 Corinthians 15:22). The cross became the method, crucifixion, to kill Jesus, God incarnate, and when the man-God died he proclaimed, “it is finished!” But as forecast in the bible by prophets and by Jesus too, after three days in a tomb, the divine-God rose, overcoming both sin and death, to have righteousness restored in those who believe in this sacrifice.

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (Corinthians 15:3-4).

That is the gift. Christ died for our sins, we are forgiven and assured, through God’s spirit indwelling in those who accept Christ, accept God, of a life eternal. We are put in a position to have purpose, obeying God, filled with the joy and hope of a life with God, and relieved of the condition of sin inherent in us all. We may still sin, but once reborn we strive to be like Christ, already forgiven of the sin but atoning nevertheless. God’s earthly example is the template. Followers of Christ are called upon to share their new self with others. Those who believe are filled with God’s love; they love God.

It remains that God loves all mankind. “Love comes from God” (1 John 4:7). His creation is good, but the will of man made free opens the soul to the Father of Lies, Satan, to provide pleasures, candies and temptations that are difficult to resist. It is a trial each time a human is tempted with the devil’s devices and the deceit that comes with them. There is no joy in what Satan offers. Satan is diligent in his efforts, his lying, to blind as many as possible, to keep them in the dark, to chain them, shackle them, so God’s light, the truth, does not fall on them.

There is joy in the gift; and it is free. It requires nothing on the part of the taker. God stands at the doorway, the lottery ticket, the gift, in hand. His lamp is always on. He never condemns those living who wish not to partake, he loves them, and is prepared to welcome them home. All prodigal children are welcome, they will be forgiven, and the festivities will be continuous. When the gift is properly accepted and understood changes will overwhelm the lottery winner. They will be made aware and know too that they know God. No one need steal, kill, or commit acts of violence to receive salvation from God. That is what the lottery ticket provides – salvation. If everyone in the world accepted God’s gift, honestly, there would be peace. No one stands in the way of God’s gift being received, accept possibly the beneficiary themselves. Those who accept Christ, the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins, will stand in the house of the Lord. Know this, “No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house, no one who speaks falsely will stand in my house” (Psalm 101J:7).

Accept the gift and you will stand in the morning, you will stand in the evening, and you will stand on the mountain tops praising the Lord, in the presence of the Lord, thankful, reborn, with hope and joy on earth as in heaven.

“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).